时间:2018-12-19 作者:英语课 分类:2007年NPR美国国家公共电台


英语课
It's Friday morning, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. This oral history project is collecting stories of Americans across the country.

And today we'll learn a little of the story of Roberta, Mona, Mary and Leota Keys. They are sisters, quadruplets, all born in 1915. They were among the first quadruplets ever to survive to adulthood 1. And now Roberta has outlived all of her sisters. She recently talked with her daughter about the night 91 years ago when she and her sisters were born.

'It was in the middle of the night, and I guess word got out in a hurry because everybody in the town was excited. And there were some women, they opened up the drugstore, and got us some little clothes to put on because my mother was only prepared for one. And we only had one birth certificate 2 for four babies. So well it has our names all on one line. And then it says "All Girls". From the time we were very young, I think, 9 months old, we were on display at the Oklahoma State Fair, every year until we were in the third grade. They built a kind of a little, a house for us with tall walls and then people spent 25 cents to come in and look over the wall. We just were on our regular little routine 3, we played with dolls and they handed out little postcards with our pictures and later on when we were growing up, some people would say 'Ooh, we paid 25 cents to see you when you were little at the fair'. And we just said 'Do you want your money back?'

"Did they?"

" No."

They were afraid to say.

Oh, I know too that you had chances to go into show business once college was over. What happened?

Well, everybody else was making money, so we had to think of a way. So we devised 4 a little act where we sang, and played our saxophones, and told little, little stories of our lives.

What broke up that act?

Well, Mona announced that she was going to get married. Everybody thought it was wonderful. It had to be. But I was sad. I like being a quadruplet than wanting anything else.

That's Roberta Keys-Torn, with her daughter Susan Young at the StoryCorps booth 5 in Houston, Texas.

All of these interviews are archived at the Library of Congress 6. And today by the way, we're starting the StoryCorps Podcast, to which you can subscribe 7 at NPR.org.


1 adulthood
n.成年,成人期
  • Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
  • Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。
2 certificate
n.证书,证明书;vt.发给证明书,认可,鉴定
  • She proudly displayed her degree certificate to her parents.她自豪地向父母展示了学位证书。
  • No one had seen her marriage certificate.没人看到过她的结婚证书。
3 routine
n.例行公事,惯例;adj.例行的,常规的
  • It is everyday routine.这是每天的例行公事。
  • She found the hospital routine slightly dull.她感到医院的工作有点枯燥乏味。
4 devised
想出( devise的过去式和过去分词 ); 计划; 设计; 发明
  • A new system has been devised to control traffic in the city. 控制城市交通的新系统已经设计出来。
  • He has devised a scheme for making money. 他想出一个赚钱的办法。
5 booth
n.小房间,公用电话亭,岗亭;货摊
  • Where can I find a telephone booth?我在哪儿可以找到电话亭?
  • Let's walk around to each booth.我们到每个摊子转一转吧!
6 Congress
n.(代表)大会;(C-:美国等国的)国会,议会
  • There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
  • After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后,他打算告老还乡。
7 subscribe
vi.(to)订阅,订购;同意;vt.捐助,赞助
  • I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
  • The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。
学英语单词
acid annealing
aleurone cells of endosperm
anoxic pore water
antenna long-wire
Arleux
augmental off-gas system
authorized data list
brought to the table
buffer plate
buried drain
calonectris leucomelas
canister-shot
capacity resistence time constant
chronosequence
coal cassification
coherent processing system parameter
coloured vase
composite depreciation method
constaff
constant current potentiometry
convenien
coroner's court
crushing force
deposition of radioactive dust
dinicotinoylornithine
EFR
Environmental Study Conference
fan-brake
free-thinning
gamma ray dosimeter
H. & S.
haloform
hanged around
haptically
Hartley, Marsden
headiness
hearthwares
hinchcliff
hogling
immunity resistant
insect bar
interspousal
ipsm
Julian Alps
Kven
lead totanate ceramics
Macewen's operation
mental arithmetic
misspender
muldaur
multienzyme complex
narchinol
national defence economics
national-savings
neighborhood parks
neosurrealists
newton's friction law
North Plains
obad
operation elements
optimal rate of mark up
Oterben
output of systems analysis and design
Pediapred
peer acceptance
pestalotia aucubae hara
potassium carbonate peroxyhydrate
preoptive control
product-mixes
promurit
puristical
pyridoxine hydrochloride
residual-ore deposit
resoundable
revives
room mining
San Salvador
Savona
Sechuana
sederunt
shed the blood of someone
single sweep
soil stratigraphy
soil test
SSI (secondary side inspection)
substrate orientation
sweettalks
take breath away
thyroidism
ticker-tape
toogh
town-hall
trachelomonas pseudobulla
trouble-free
two-byte conversion
vacuum bypass
valley shape factor
vertical slit arc-chute
wagon wheel grain
water-tight regulations
woolner
Yucatan Current